


Promises, Promises

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Series: 2019 Tony Stark Bingo [8]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, M/M, Mob Boss Steve Rogers, Romeo & Juliet romance, not dark for mob au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 04:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20370766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: Mob AU. Bucky needs a favor from his Captain, but first he has to admit to dating the enemy.





	Promises, Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Tony Stark Bingo square R5: Didn't Know They Were Dating  
& the Winteriron Bingo square I2: promises
> 
> first piece after a bit of an unplanned hiatus, so apologies for being rusty!

Bucky didn’t fidget. Nerves made him assert more control over his body, not less, and so he watched the rest of the team finish wrapping up the meeting’s agenda without twitching. 

Steve glanced at Bucky out of the corner of his eye.

“Anything else?” Steve asked, addressing the question to the whole group. 

Only Bucky’s stillness made his jaw stay shut, even though Bucky knew this was his chance. Steve was giving him an opportunity. 

He said nothing. 

The rest of the team shook their heads, already levering themselves to their feet. Steve’s lips pinched together for a moment, but he dismissed everyone with a wave of his hand. 

Bucky stayed rigid in his chair.

Steve sighed and slouched in his own chair at the head of the table. He tossed a thank you at Natasha, who shut the door on her way out. 

Bucky grimaced. Apparently more than just Steve could recognize Bucky’s tells, now. He licked his lips. 

“Captain -”

“Oh no,” Steve interrupted as he leaned forward in his chair, blue eyes dark. “If this is business, you should’ve brought it to the team.”

Bucky scowled, but knew Steve was right. They’d both walked a careful line with their friendship when Steve had started prowling the streets with the urge to fight back against the gangs that had pestered their neighborhood. Bucky had followed Steve without question - all it had taken was Dr. Erksine, the owner of the local pharmacy store, getting robbed and roughed up for Bucky to know there was no stopping Steve from this quest. Bucky has no regrets, but as they’d grown from Steve and Bucky - adding Peggy, then Clint, then Natasha and Sam, and now even more - they’d butted heads or descended into icy silence as they figured out their footing between Steve and Bucky, childhood friends, and their business personas the Captain and his Soldier. 

Now, Bucky was going to toe the line with his request. Or maybe he was finally crossing it. He’d been skating on the edge ever since he’d started seeing Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark, heir apparent to the Stark _familia_. 

And he hadn’t told Steve. 

“It’s business related,” Bucky argued without much heart. 

“Spit it out already,” Steve says with a wry grin, “or I’m going to start getting worried.”

“Aw, I’d hate to get your panties in a twist all over little ol’ me.”

“_Bucky_.”

Bucky took a breath for courage.

“Stevie, I - I’ve been dating Tony Stark.” 

“Stark?” Steve hissed before his jaw clenched shut and cut off further sound. 

Bucky didn’t duck his head. He met Steve’s glower head on, without backing down. Like Steve said before, this is Bucky talking to Steve, not the Soldier to his Captain. Not asking in front of the team was probably in Bucky’s best interest. 

Bucky will pretend that was the reason, and not the earlier loss of nerve. 

Steve sat back in his chair, hand over his mouth. His eyes flashed in anger, and that maybe should scare Bucky. Steve was still the Captain, still Bucky’s Captain. 

It didn’t scare him. Bucky had agonized over this moment, but now that it’s finally here, he’s ready to meet it head on. He’s sure - or else he’s already lit the bridge on fire, and now he’ll see it through until the ashy end. 

“I want to recruit him,” Bucky said, words falling fast so that he could line up all his arguments before Steve starts talking. “He’s so brilliant, you don’t even know. Tech, machines, anything. And he’s so much better than his father, I promise you that. Tony is so much more than -”

“How long?”

Bucky had used up the seconds of Steve’s speechlessness. 

“How long,” Steve repeated, “were you and - and Stark -”

“Tony,” Bucky corrected, “and I, uh, couple ‘a months, at this point.”

“And you didn’t tell me,” Steve leveled like an accusation. 

“Doing it now,” Bucky said calmly. 

“Because you think that _Tony_ wants to leave his family, his riches, and come join us down in the slums.”

Because despite what Steve could charge for his protective services, Steve charged nothing. He took money from those who he hurt, not from his people. It kept their group poor since so many attackers were poor themselves, but Steve said he never wanted to forget where he started and why he started doing what he was doing.

Unlike the Starks, living in their mansion with money to spare for charging for their services. 

“And,” Steve continued, “you think Howard Stark is going to let him.”

“Yeah,” Bucky claimed, refusing to back down. 

He knew it was stupid. He just hoped that it was a Steve-brand form of stupid.

Steve blinked then snorted. “God, our mamas were right. Your dick has gotten you into some kind of trouble.”

Bucky spluttered. 

Steve waved away Bucky’s protests. Bucky went quiet as he saw the mantle of the Captain settle over Steve’s shoulders. It isn’t that Bucky regrets what they’re doing, becoming something like a mob trolling the streets, but it makes something in Bucky’s chest ache for the good old days when he sees the responsibility so clearly weigh on Steve. 

“Have you talked to Stark - Tony - yet?” Steve asked.

Bucky shook his head. “Knew I needed to tell you first.”

Bucky didn’t know what he would do if Steve said no. His heart twisted at the thought of cutting it off with Tony. Bucky was too deep, he knew that about himself. He wasn’t sure he could let go, not even if his Captain ordered him to. 

But could he continue to live on the edge, in between his family and Tony’s? 

He couldn’t let Steve say no. 

Steve’s chest heaved with a huge breath of air. 

“Jesus, Buck. You wouldn’t ask if you weren’t serious, but I have to ask. Tony Stark. Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Bucky confirmed with a weak grin. “He’s - if you knew him, you’d understand. I mean, you’d probably hate him at first,” Bucky backtracked. “He’s a sarcastic little shit, and you’ll fight, but once you actually get to know him, you’ll love him.”

Steve glared at Bucky. “That’s the best you can do?”

Bucky shrugged. “Honest.”

“And you’re sure he’s not tricking you. Tricking us.”

“I’m sure,” Bucky claimed without hesitation. 

Steve shook his head. “I’ll think about it. It’ll be the most ridiculous thing we’ve pulled off so far, if it works. I’m not looking to starting a war with the Starks, which will for sure happen if anyone thinks we’ve kidnapped Howard’s son. So you talk to Tony and even see if he’s on board. He might not be on the same page as you.”

“Thank you, Stevie,” Bucky breathed, shoulders relaxing in relief. 

“No promises,” Steve cautioned. “I’ll think about it.”

Bucky smirked. “I’ll talk to Tony. Something tells me between the two of you, we’ll have a couple ’a good ideas.” 

* * *

“You told him?” Tony shouted, his voice filling the car. 

Bucky relaxed back in his seat. Tony’s shouting was much easier to handle than the livid stare Tony had previously had. 

“I did. It’s time, doll, don’t you think?”

Tony slapped the steering wheel, but Bucky had waited until Tony had parked before admitting what he’d done. They’d grabbed lunch - or close enough to lunch, at three in the afternoon - before finding an open spot outside of both Steve and Howard’s territories. 

Right now Bucky only had to be concerned if Tony stormed out of the car and left. 

“We said, agreed, and you just went and - if you’d asked me earlier, I would’ve talked you out of this stupid idea!”

Bucky went still. Steve’s comment about Tony not feeling the same had rolled right off. Bucky had been confident. Both he and Tony had had a lot to lose in seeing each other, but they’d done it anyway. Together they’d figure the next step out, to get _Tony_ out. Now, Bucky felt that surety chip, chip away. 

The small space of the car interior kept Tony pinned. He couldn’t vibrate around in his anger, and he shoved open the car door. 

Bucky popped out of his side, knowing he needed to keep Tony in sight or else give up all hope. 

Bucky didn’t know how to do that. Tony had snuck in, had taken up root in part of Bucky’s heart. Even if Bucky wanted to, he couldn’t get rid of Tony, not entirely. That’s not how Bucky loved people. Just like Steve, just like Natasha, just like the rest of the family, Tony would forever be branded there.

“Howard will never let me go,” Tony said, his voice coming down to a vicious whisper so that it wouldn’t carry far. The parking lot was empty of people, but it paid to be careful. “His pride wouldn’t take it. Doesn’t matter that he couldn’t give two shits about me. It’s all about his ego!”

Tony gripped his hair and spun around in a circle. Bucky leaped over the hood of the car, using a hand for balance, so that he could get in Tony’s face. 

“Tell me you don’t want out,” Bucky said, voice low. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll drop it.” A lie, probably. Bucky isn’t good at letting things go - just like Steve. 

“Howard -”

“Don’t tell me about him. I’m not scared of him,” Bucky lied again. “Tell me what you want.”

Tony looked up at Bucky, his brown eyes wide and bright. Bucky could drown in that gaze and be happy. 

“Rogers will never go for it.”

Bucky grinned, backing Tony back up against the car door. If Tony was deflecting, that meant Tony was trying not to admit the truth - they both wanted the same thing. 

“Stop thinking of the future,” Bucky said, his heart soaring high. “Think right here, right now.” He squeezed Tony’s hips to help Tony focus. “Come on genius, tell me what you want.”

Tony shoved Bucky away with a half-hearted snarl. “Oh, screw you and your ego too.”

Bucky let himself be pushed back, his grin threatening to split his face. “You love me and my ego.”

Tony’s eyes softened, and he licked his lips but didn’t repeat the words like Bucky had hoped. 

Bucky would get them eventually. He could wait for Tony to say it. 

“I want to,” Tony admitted, looking away from Bucky, “but Bucky, I’ve spent years of my life searching for a way out. I haven’t seen one. And I’m smart.”

“So is Stevie,” Bucky pressed. “We get you two together, I’ll play mediator, and I promise we’ll come up with something.”

“Don’t promise me. Don’t - just, just don’t.” Tony sighed and opened up the driver’s side door. “Get back in. I need to head back or Happy will come looking for me.”

Bucky stepped close and laid a quick kiss on Tony’s lips. 

“You promise me something instead, then. Don’t give up hope.”

“You and your naive optimism,” Tony said with a sigh. 

Bucky got in the passenger seat with a thudding pulse. They didn’t talk on the way home. Tony turned up the volume on the radio and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Tony’s fingers beat out a constant rhythm that didn’t match up with the beat of the songs, and so Bucky knew there was a lot going on Tony’s mind. That was the usual, as Tony’s brain was constantly flying with thoughts and ideas, but Bucky hoped that most of those thoughts and ideas had both Bucky and happiness in them. He was doubtful though, given the pinch at the edges of Tony’s eyes. 

When Tony parked again, he grabbed Bucky’s arm before Bucky could get out of the car. 

Tony breathed. Bucky waited him out. 

“I promise, Bucky, but -”

Bucky leaned over and kissed him quiet. “That’s all I need. Trust me.”

“You mean trust Rogers.”

“I mean trust me.”

Tony snorted. “Well, try not to tell anyone else that we’re dating.”

“I’ll shout it from the rooftops,” Bucky teased with a smile.

“You’re stealing my jokes, that is patently not allowed.”

Bucky kissed the pout from Tony’s lips.


End file.
